Improving Accurate Diagnosis and Treatment for Acute Viral Conjunctivitis

Conjunctivitis is the most common cause of red eye and one of the most frequent causes of visits to clinicians. There is significant controversy on the diagnosis and treatment of the disease and the use of ophthalmic antibiotics. The inconvenience of the untimely diagnostic tests led to the trend of treating conjunctivitis empirically with ophthalmic antibiotics. Subsequently, the diagnosis of bacterial conjunctivitis is higher than it should be resulting in overuse of antibiotics. Consequences of inappropriate diagnosis and treatment include increased virulence, increased health care costs, and incorrect use of antibiotics leading to possible adverse reaction and antibiotic resistance. Appropriate diagnosis and treatment will assist to reduce the diagnosis of bacterial conjunctivitis and use of ophthalmic antibiotics resulting in reduced virulence and reduced health care costs. The AdenoPlus test has been shown to be effective in appropriately diagnosing viral conjunctivitis and subsequently decreasing the use of ophthalmic antibiotics however this evidence in limited. A national retail clinic has adopted the use of this tool to assist with proper diagnosis and treatment of viral conjunctivitis. Data has not yet been analyzed to determine if the implementation of this test changes the practice of clinicians at the national retail clinic